Predisposition toward auditory hallucinations: the utility of the Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale in psychiatric patients

The aim of the present study was to examine the factor structure of the Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale (1981), a measure of hallucinatory predisposition, in a sample of 169 psychiatric patients. Principal components analysis was carried out on scores derived from the modified LSHS (Bentall & Slade, Personality and Individual Differences, 6, 527–529, 1985). Factor one loaded on items concerning vivid daydreams; factors two loaded on items reflecting hallucinatory experience in psychosis; factor three loaded highly on items tapping intrusive, vivid thoughts; while factor four loaded on items tapping perceptual abberations. These data support the separability of the LSHS sub-clinical and clinical types of auditory hallucinations.